Some of the most popular traditional apps addressed the locally relevant “needs” of African society.Kenya’s money-transfer application, M-Pesa, revolutionised day-to-day banking for millions in rural areas who do not have access to traditional banks.In a search through the top 100 downloaded apps in Africa, using information gathered from App Annie, a site that aggregates IOS top apps along with other IT market data, and “World Hot Apps”, which aggregates the app rankings of all app stores, we have come up with a “Top Ten List” of Africa’s most popular dating apps.Hidden amongst car racing apps, sex position apps, Bible and Qur’an apps, apps that hide folders and pimp your screen apps were the dating apps.These stretch from banking services to agricultural advice and, now, dating.With 20% of Africa’s 1.1 billion-strong population now online, and 70% of internet users using mobile phones, the impact of applications is set to reverberate across social, political and economic spaces.KUZA Doctor is an app which gave huge support to farmers with critical knowledge to increase their rates of production while learning the value of conservation farming.

According to Mobi Thinking Africa, the top mobile activities for mobile-only users are related to apps: downloading games (55%), downloading music (54%) and social networking (52%).Mobile applications are slowly transforming African society.Over the past few years, more and more Africans are turning to their mobile phones for services.Here are the top ten dating apps we found on the continent, listing the countries where they were particularly popular: Zoosk Countries: Algeria, Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, South Africa Calling itself the number one dating app, Zoosk allows singles to chat with other local singles.Almost half of all African countries have a dating app in their top 100 list and, surprisingly, the most popular dating app on the continent was Grindr, an app specifically designed for homosexual or bisexual men.

It was clear that in the traditionally conservative African societies that dating apps were the way around the usual barriers of engagement.